


Spontaneous Visit

by Khrystyll



Series: Life after the end [5]
Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26373658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khrystyll/pseuds/Khrystyll
Summary: Akira accompanies Shindou on an unplanned trip to the Honinbo Shuusaku Igo Memorial Museum.
Relationships: Fujiwara no Sai & Shindou Hikaru, Shindou Hikaru & Touya Akira, Shindou Hikaru & Yashiro Kiyoharu
Series: Life after the end [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601968
Comments: 6
Kudos: 77





	Spontaneous Visit

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read the other works in this series, the only thing you really need to know is that Touya knows the truth about Sai.  
> It doesn't matter, but if anyone is wondering, Shindou and Touya are 34 in this story.  
> This is in Touya's POV.

They’ve just come from a Go event, but it doesn’t stop them from playing Go almost immediately after they arrive at the hotel. Shindou and Yashiro are playing a match on the floor, while Isumi-san and Kurata-san are having a game of their own at the table. Akira is seated on the bed, from where he can observe both matches.

They gathered in Yashiro’s room instinctually. All these years of spending time together because of Go has created unspoken traditions and unintended habits within their small group. They’re in Hiroshima, but just like any other day in Tokyo, Go brings them together. Akira is simultaneously amazed and relieved that after all these years, they all still play and enjoy the game.

In recent years, Shindou and Akira have hoarded all the major titles. Some titles they’ve defended perfectly so far-- like the Honinbo for Shindou, and the Meijin for Akira. But the Juudan title has been going back and forth between the two of them; neither of them have ever successfully defended the title even once. 

However, Shindou and Akira don’t actually get to play that many official matches with each other anymore. With Yashiro, Isumi-san, Kurata-san, and many new young professionals there to keep challenging them, they not only have a difficult time defending their titles, they are also unable to earn the right to challenge for the other titles that often.

Several rotations and games later, Isumi-san and Kurata-san decide to turn in for the night. They both have another event to attend to in Kumamoto and have to leave early tomorrow to travel further south.

On the other hand, the three of them are just going home-- Yashiro back to Osaka, Shindou and Akira back to Tokyo. None of them have pressing schedules for tomorrow so they opt to continue playing. 

Akira and Yashiro are focused on their game when suddenly Shindou looks up from reading Weekly Go to talk to them.

“I’m thinking of taking a detour on the way home tomorrow. Do you guys want to come along?”

Akira is surprised. He’s never pegged Shindou for an adventurous traveler type. As far as he knew, Shindou never initiated a detour plan on any of the many occasions they’ve traveled together. Yashiro raises a brow, but he just places a stone on the board before he responds.

“Where do you plan to go? Miyajima or something?” Then, Yashiro seems to remember something. “Wait, you aren’t thinking of dragging us around like that time you called me out to Kyoto, are you?”

Shindou grins at that. Yashiro is still looking at Shindou with suspicion. Apparently they’ve… toured… around Kyoto together before. Akira has never heard of this but he doesn’t think he wants to know. He can only imagine what random mischief Shindou subjected Yashiro to for him to be so cautious this time.

Unable to stop himself, Shindou lets out a chuckle. “Those were fun times.” Yashiro doesn’t look like he agrees but he doesn’t say anything. Eventually, Shindou stops laughing at the memory and answers the question.

“I was actually thinking about going to Innoshima.”

“Innoshima? What do you want to do there?” Just when Akira was starting to think Miyajima was a good idea, Shindou spits out a completely unexpected place name. What does he even plan to do in Innoshima? If Akira remembers correctly, Innoshima was never particularly famous for tourism.

“I want to visit the Honinbo Shusaku Igo Memorial Museum.”

At that, both Yashiro and Akira stared at Shindou with unimpressed faces. They should have known better. This Shuusaku-obsessed Go idiot is exactly the kind of person who would suggest going to this museum. Akria had completely forgotten that such a museum was in Innoshima. He didn’t even realize that yes, they were in fact nearby.

In the end, though, Akira was also slightly interested so he decided to accompany Shindou. Yashiro, on the other hand, declined the offer because he has a match the day after and didn’t want to risk getting home late the next day.

Their casual games lasted very late into the night that all three of them didn’t wake up until late in the morning. Izumi-san and Kurata-san had long since left by the time they were fully awake at noon. After lunch, Akira and Shindou saw Yashiro off as he boarded his train to Osaka before they headed for their own train.

They took the train from Hiroshima all the way to Onomichi, after which they walked to a Car Rental. From there, Shindou has been driving them to Innoshima island. It isn’t until 10 minutes into the drive that Akira notices something is not quite right. Shindou never inputted an address to the GPS. He’s hardly even looking at the map as he’s driving. What’s more, when they got off at the station in Onomichi, Akira can’t remember Shindou stopping to ask or check for directions to the Car Rental.

“Why are you looking at me like I murdered a puppy?” Shindou asks him, as the blonde spares a glance in his direction before focusing immediately back on driving.

Akira narrows his eyes at him. “You’ve been here before.” It’s a statement, not a question. “Several times before.” It’s almost accusatory.

He sees the side of Shindou’s lips tilt up to a smile. “Never said I haven’t.”

Despite his loud and brash nature, Shindou is surprisingly good at keeping secrets. Akira would know, what with the whole Sai thing. And even if it’s not a secret, Shindou doesn’t say anything about himself unless he’s directly asked, which often surprises people who think he’s the open-book type.

Akira just sighs and lets the matter go. Considering it’s a Shuusaku museum, Shindou probably came here before due to Sai. He doesn’t want to think too much. Things related to Go masters and ghosts still give him a headache after all these years of knowing the truth.

Another 15 minutes or so, they finally arrive at the museum.

Akira’s not sure what he was expecting, but he’s surprised to find that the museum looks just like every other museum. The building is a decent size, clean, and modern, and the neighborhood is suitably peaceful.

“Welcome!” Akira hears the familiar greeting as they both enter the building. But the moment he turned towards the voice where the front desk must be, the woman behind the desk suddenly stood up from her seat, an expression of surprise.

“Hikaru-kun?” She walks over to them, a less professional and more affectionate smile on her face. “It is you, Hikaru-kun! You’re not usually here at this time of the year.” 

Just from the first few seconds since they arrived, and from that one sentence, Akira realized Shindou has not only come here many times before, he actually comes here regularly.

“Good afternoon, Kobayashi-san! Sorry for the surprise visit. Here, some momiji manju.” Shindou hands over a box of manju that Akira didn’t even notice he had. “It’s from Hiroshima, though, so you can probably get these more often than I can.”

“What are you talking about, these are more than enough. Ahh, you’ve really grown up.” She smiles up at Shindou with motherly pride before she turns to Akira. “Now this is a surprise. Hikaru-kun has never come here with anyone before! Nice to meet you, I’m Kobayashi Saeko. I work here in the museum.”

Akira bows respectfully. “Nice to meet you, Kobayashi-san. I’m Touya Akira.”

“Touya Akira? The current Meijin, Touya Akira?” He nods, surprised at the sudden burst of energy. “I’ve heard so much about you!”

He glances towards Shindou who has kept a smile on his face since they arrived. “All good things, I hope.” Kobayashi-san just laughs. “Of course.”

She leads both of them to the museum staff office where they meet two other staff members that also know Shindou. They greet him respectfully, but with a sense of familiarity. Shindou tries to introduce him to the two newcomers, but two autograph papers have already been thrust towards Akira before Shindou could even finish saying his name.

They all sit around a table, drinking tea and eating the manju that Shindou brought. They talk about Go, and his and Shindou’s matches in particular. He finds it surprisingly easy to relax and chat with these people he’s never met before. Akira thinks it’s because they’re talking about Go. It also helps that Shindou and Kobayashi-san make sure to include him in the conversation at all times.

After a while, the discussion turns to their visit and Kobayashi-san notes that it must be Akira’s first time visiting. She offers to give him a tour of the museum, so they all prepare to leave the office and finally go into the museum itself.

Shindou opts out of the tour, noting that he’s already visited the museum earlier in the year. All he says before he leaves is that he’ll be “outside at the usual place” and he’s out the door in seconds. The fact that the museum staff don’t seem to be surprised or care too much about Shindou’s abrupt nature is evidence enough that they’re used to him.

Kobayashi-san leads Akira into the museum and they go around the exhibits. Kobayashi-san tells him some stories and explanations on some of them as they pass them by. She even tells him anecdotes about Shindou related to certain parts of the museum.

“There was one year Hikaru-kun slipped on the newly mopped floor and tumbled over that goban set. All the stones scattered so we had to spend hours collecting and cleaning them. We even found a stone under that shelf over there three days later!” 

Shindou seemed to have done something memorable in every inch of this place because Kobayashi-san always had a story to tell. He was even surprised to hear himself mentioned in some of the stories.

“I think it was four or five years ago, when Hikaru-kun won the Kisei title from you the first time. He taped the kifu on this wall and told us to keep it there for the whole week. He’s always so childish when it comes to his rivalry with you.”

Sometimes, Akira isn’t sure whether to laugh at Shindou’s antics, or be embarrassed by them. Kobayashi-san didn’t seem to have that problem though, as she continues to laugh unapologetically even as she tells the stories. With all of these obviously precious and seemingly long-ago memories, Akira can’t help but wonder just when exactly Shindou started coming here, and how he got so close to all the museum staff. 

Kobayashi-san leads him out of the museum and towards Shuusaku’s reconstructed childhood home. It doesn’t escape his notice that Shindou is not at the museum entrance, nor the small parking area, when they pass by. He decides not to mind it. Kobayashi-san probably knows where “the usual” is and will lead him there after the tour.

The replica house is nice and pretty cozy for its size, but there’s nothing particularly remarkable about it besides the goban set and the fact that it used to be where Shuusaku lived. It seems Shindou also doesn’t spend much time in Shuusaku’s house because Kobayashi-san’s only story about him is that he played a game of Go here with a former museum staff. 

Kobayashi-san surprises him when she asks if he’d like to play a game with her. But he agrees without hesitation and they both take a seat to start a game. Her skills are mediocre at best, but Akira thinks she’s enjoying the game anyway. He wonders if playing in this place feels different for Shindou considering his, admittedly unusual, connection to Shuusaku.

When they leave the house, Kobayashi-san doesn’t lead him back to the museum. Instead, they arrive at a nearby graveyard where Akira finds Shindou standing in front of a grave, his back to them. 

“Whenever he visits, he always visits Shuusaku-sama’s grave. At first, I thought he was just praying for success in his Go career. But as the years go by, I feel like his reasons are deeper than I can understand.”

“When did Shindou start coming here?” Akira couldn’t help asking.

“Oh, it’s been years!” Kobayashi-san doesn’t even hesitate to answer. “I think he was 14 or 15 when he first visited. It really has been a long time.”

“He comes here every year, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. He comes on the same day every year. But he also sometimes visits on other days if he is able to stop by when he’s traveling. Just like today.” She explains with a smile.

Akira is connecting the dots. They were around 15 when Sai disappeared. This is Shuusaku’s grave. Shindou always takes a leave of absence on the same two days every year. Everything about this trip, as well as those yearly two-day breaks, finally make sense.

“If you want to pay respects to Shuusaku-sama’s grave, you can go ahead. I’ll wait for the two of you at the museum.”

“I’ll wait for Shindou to finish first.” He says, because Shindou has not moved from his position since they arrived and he doesn’t want to interrupt.

“No need. If you leave him be, he’d still be there after sunset.” She’s laughing softly, probably at a memory of Shindou doing just that. She gently gestures for him to go ahead. “Make sure you drag him along when you come back.”

Akira smiles at her. He bows lightly in thanks before walking slowly towards the grave. He stops when he’s right in front of it, standing beside Shindou. Shindou doesn’t react outwardly to his presence, but he does speak to him.

“How was the tour?”

“Informative.” Akira responds, unable to help the beginnings of a smirk from forming on his face. “I now have more evidence of just how idiotic you are.”

Shindou laughs. “Kobayashi-san really didn’t hold back on the stories, did she? But if it was Takeda-san, it would have been a lot more embarrassing so I guess I can’t complain.”

“Is that Takeda-san not working today?”

There’s a beat where Shindou doesn’t answer and his smile turns just slightly nostalgic. “He passed away early last year.” His voice is soft. For a while, neither of them say anything.

“I told you you didn’t have to worry about letting me know when I’m being idiotic. Touya’s here to do that for you.”

Akira can’t help but turn to Shindou. That was obviously not said towards Akira because Shindou is looking straight at the grave. He’s never heard Shindou talk to Sai until now. Strangely, it suddenly feels like Sai is actually here, even though he knows he no longer is, even for Shindou who used to be able to communicate with him.

Slowly, Akira kneels in front of the grave, and notices there is a broken fan beside it. He closes his eyes and says a quick prayer for Honinbo Shuusaku first. Then, before he can hesitate more, he says a short message to Sai in the silence of his mind.

_ Thank you. For getting Shindou to visit the Go salon that day, all those years ago. _

**Author's Note:**

> Yashiro and Shindou's Kyoto trip is not canon. It is actually one of my unwritten story ideas for this series.  
> This story has a lot of references to other works in this series, particularly "Yearly Tradition" and "Keeping Promises".  
> Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts. :)


End file.
